Photo By Brannen Parrish | Christopher Strunk, chief of military design, Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of...... read more read more
Employees from the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assisted with judging and oversight at the 2020 Tulsa Engineering Challenge at Tulsa Technical Institute, March 6.
Tulsa District employees participated by overseeing stations to test contestants' submissions and entries.
Organizers put on the event to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Math to area youth by providing a venue and framework for competitions that promote design and application.
Christopher Strunk, Chief of Military Design for the Tulsa District, has been judging and helping with the TECh competition for the past 16 years.
In addition to his activities with the Tulsa Chapter of the Society of American Military Engineers, Strunk helps kids by teaching two of the common launcher designs for at-risk students.
Strunk's team of Corps judges oversees the Ping Pong Ball launch challenge. The participants design a launcher and must use a mouse trap and all of its components within the design. The mouse trap spring is the sole propellant for the ping pong ball.
"The competitions provide kids with a problem that they have to solve and variables they can control," said Strunk. "They have to get the ping pong ball into one of three or more targets. So they have to figure out how to solve the problem, what are the variables they can control and ask themselves, 'How do I control it?'"
The practical application of engineering contests has real world implications Strunk noted.
"In our work with the Corps, we have building codes we have to work within," said Strunk. "Those codes are variables that we have to work within. So we're getting the kids to think in terms of step by step problem solving and how to take a design and evolve it to solve the problem."
Capt. Shaun Swayne, a project manager for the Engineering and Construction Division at the Tulsa District, helped judge the event in 2019 and 2020. According to Swayne the competition gets fierce.
"There are usually three teams that will separate themselves from the pack and the teachers and students are engaged," said Swayne. "The kids have come up with solutions to get their launchers dialed in."
| Date Taken: | 03.06.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 03.06.2020 14:06 |
| Story ID: | 364649 |
| Location: | TULSA, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 76 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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